My School Update for January

My school updates are mostly for me. I like to have a summary of what we studied. If you're not interested...don't read!

This month in school:

We've had two history lessons every week. Our family lesson has been about the 1600s...including some Indian history (that's India the country) about a grandfather-father-son dynasty with the coolest names. They called themselves: "World Seizer", "King of the World", and "Conqueror of the World". Obviously they had healthy self-esteems. "King of the World" was the 'builder' of the Taj Mahal. We looked at lots of pictures of that amazing structure, sampled Indian food, and read some stories about India.

After that unit we turned to Great Britain where Charles I had been crowned king. He dissolved Parliament, was ousted by Oliver Cromwell and then executed. Oliver Cromwell took control of England, but turned out to be a less than stellar ruler. He died and was succeeded by Charles II. So far in our reading Charles II is surviving, but London is not. We've been reading about the Plague and the great fire that destroyed 4/5 of London during this time. Makes for great visuals. :-)

Our other history lessons have been ones I'm teaching for my children and another family that joins us. We have been focusing on American History, starting with the Revolutionary War and so far including the War of 1812. I love studying the founding of our country so it's been wonderful to be able to share some of my favorite stories about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others. There is a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about Paul Revere that has been turned into a picture book with beautiful paintings. I highly recommend it. Just search for works by Longfellow at the library - the poem is in it's original form - not condensed. Some parts might need to be explained a bit to children to help them follow the story.

So that's history. Science has been taught by the family that joins us for our American History unit. They've learned about how to conduct experiments, made fog in a jar, and are observing and learning about clouds right now.

Logan is getting ready to start his official reading program. I planned to sign him up mid-February (so it would still be around when I had the baby and could entertain him a bit for me - it's online). Brynne has been reading like crazy. Both kids doing handwriting every day and that's been fun. I write crazy sentences for Logan to copy. His favorite so far was 'Purple penguins play ping-pong'. Obviously, he was practicing his P's. :-)

For math Logan has been practicing his addition and subtraction facts up to 20. I am teaching him about fact families to help him remember which numbers are related (for example, 3+4=7, 7-3=4, 7-4=3).
Brynne is in a review period. Before I start her on multiplication I want to be sure she has a really good grounding in basic math. It seemed to work for Hannah to put multiplication off a year and just focus on accuracy, speed, and usage of basic addition and subtraction concepts. So Brynne's working on borrowing, carrying, and doing her math facts as quickly as possible (on her head, of all things). We won't start multiplication until beginning of 4th grade instead of introducing it now. One area that she is naturally ahead in is fractions...because she loves to cook! She has also memorized some conversions such as how many tsp to a Tb and how many TB in a quarter cup, etc. Interesting to me what children will choose to learn.

Hmmmm. Is there anything else?

Oh, Music - Brynne has suddenly developed an interest in playing the piano. She plunks away as often as I can stand it. I'm letting her explore and play and teach herself for now without launching into formal lessons. So far she's learned several songs from our beginning piano books.

Gardening - we have spent a lot of time working in the yard before the rain starts (yes, we're getting rain again!). I read in the garden section of the paper that January should actually be one of the busiest months in your garden as you clear out old growth, weed, and prepare for spring planting. So I've taken that to heart! On Saturday we visited a nursery run by a friend of ours called Simple Succulent. Our friend specializes in....succulents. Are you surprised? :-)
They grow so well in Ft. Bragg. We have decided to plant succulent ground-covers on the patch of gravel to the north of the driveway. It's the ugliest strip of ground! It gets walked on once in awhile so we wanted something green, that didn't need much water, and could handle occasional traffic. We received a lovely lesson about different types of succulents and some advice, and then were free to browse. Succulents have not always been my favorite plants, but when you see so many varieties grouped together they are interesting to look at and compare. Josh and the girls planted two varieties and we have a third kind to put in still. I can't wait till they've taken root!

Fun Stuff - Hannah was treated to a riding lesson by a friend in our ward. He taught her the basics of saddling and handling a horse, then they took the horses to the outskirts of Ft. Bragg and rode in the hills for 90 minutes. Hannah LOVED it. Brynne was a little envious, but she was very nice and hopes to have a turn herself when she's older.

We've been given a multitude of fresh farm eggs this past month. Got to love having cousins in town!!